Paper bags are typically made with one closed end and one open end. The open end has hot melt as a thermoplastic bead or film applied so that, when the customer gets the bag, he puts in his material and then passes the open end of the bag through a heat sealer to close and seal the bag with the glue for this operation being provided by the hot melt. When the bag is passed horizontally through a conventional pinch bottomer by a pair of conveyor belts, the hot melt glue is put on by extrusion or by wheel. The end of the bag, if it is a multiple ply bag, consists of a number of layers which are staggered so the glue will be applied to the end of each layer. The problem is that, when the bags come out of the hot melt application station, they cannot be easily opened because the various layers in each bag stick together. So far, it has been proposed to blow air in between the layers. However, this introduces contaminants into the bag. As another alternative, the bags may be opened by hand, which can be quite clostly.